To Myself of Ten Years From Today
by Koholos
Summary: Team 7 looks into the future, and finds it might not be what they expect it to be. Naruto-Kun.com fanfiction contest winner.


To Myself of 10 years From Today

"...It is possible to know everything. Everything that is, but the future..."

It was late in the day, as Naruto and his friends from team 7 all gathered around the fire. It had been getting cold, of late, but around the camp fire, it was warm and bright. Kakashi watched the three Genin children fooling around and smiled to himself. It made him happy, watching them, at peace for a change, falling into their normal routine, watching them show their understanding for.... No, he decided, not understanding, their friendship with one another.

After a few minutes, Sakura turned to him and spoke, breaking him from his thoughts. "Kakashi-sensei? What were you thinking about? You looked... sad."

He'd looked sad? That was odd. Perhaps he was just getting old. "I was just thinking. Here it is, a new year, and here you three are, and you've grown so much. So, I thought I'd do what my sensei did with my team, when we were younger, and see where you think you'll be in 10 years, and what you think you'll be doing?"

The three nodded, and Sakura smiled. "That's great idea, Kakashi-sensei. Will you go first?"

"All right." He nodded. "I think that in ten years, I will be a happy old man. There will be no war, and ninjas will be unnecessary to society. We'll be able to fade away into the shadows for the last time, and I'll go become a writer, like my hero."

The day was dark and gloomy, and the rain poured down. The whole village stood, arrayed in black, each with a flower. There was slight sniffling to be heard through the crowd, and they all stood with heads bowed, as they looked at a picture of a white-haired man, with smiling eyes.

There was a sob in the crowd, and Sakura started to weep. Naruto, too, had tears in his eyes. "It's not fair. It's not fair at all..." Naruto's fists were clenched at his sides. "He was a good person, and he shouldn't have had to die this way. He didn't even want to die fighting."

The assembly all nodded, sadly. "Kakashi was a great man, and a great ninja. It is too bad he is dead."

"No..." Naruto looked up, his eyes ablaze. "I refuse to say too bad, and let it end. I will make sure that it is finished."

Kakashi looked at Sasuke next. "Now, you."

Sasuke snorted in derision, obviously not caring for this game of "Let's Pretend", but he answered anyway. "In ten years, my brother will be dead, and I'll be here, sitting here bored, like I am right now."

Sasuke sat in front of a camp fire, one that gave him memories, for some reason he couldn't put his finger on. It had been a long tough fight, but he'd finally won. He had finally killed his brother. He'd sacrificed his mind, his life, and his friendship. But he had, after all of that, defeated his brother in a fight.

He heard a snapping in the branches behind him, and he turned to look. There, coming from the shadows, was Naruto. "I figured it was you. After all these years, you're still a noisy loser."

Naruto looked like he was about to get mad, but then a strange calm seemed to pass over his face. "I didn't need to hide from you. It would have spoiled it, if I had."

"Have you come to kill me, then?" Sasuke sneered. "I always figured you would, someday, try to."

Naruto nodded. "Ten years ago, we sat here with Kakashi-sensei, and discussed what we would do with our lives. Now, he's dead, and I will punish you for that." His eyes glowed red with the energy of the Kyuubi as he charged. Sasuke saw the first punch coming, and was able to block it, but only barely. The next hit, and the next, and the next, came closer and closer together, as Naruto's rhythm built to a speed he was comfortable with.

Sasuke's eyes widened. Naruto had become incredibly powerful. He hadn't even killed Kakashi. It wasn't his fault. But he had known, since their first true fight, the one on the hospital roof, that this day would someday come. That there was only one end to their rivalry.

"Naruto? Where will you be, in 10 years?"

Naruto charged Sasuke, all the rage he'd stored inside him for so long finally coming out. This wasn't about Kakashi, or about Sasuke leaving. He knew that deep inside. Deep inside, it was the same fight he always had. The fight against himself, and the fight to prove himself to Sasuke, to force Sasuke to acknowledge him.

The two fought back and forth, for a long time, until a punch threw them both backwards. Then, as they had done so long ago, they readied their special jutsus.

The fire caught the sparkle in his eyes, as Naruto smiled and tapped his chest with his thumb. "That's easy. In ten years, I'm going to be the Hokage."

The two of them ran towards each other, arms outstretched. They ran straight into each other, smashing each other with their jutsus.

They stood there for a minute, their eyes only inches apart. Finally, Sasuke broke the silence. "You've grown." And with that, he died. Tears streamed down Naruto's cheeks, before he, too, gave in to the darkness.

Finally, Kakashi turned to look at Sakura. The fire flickering on her face made it look almost as if she were crying, and Kakashi wondered what she was thinking, and whether she could see what he couldn't. "All right, Sakura. What about you?"

"I don't know." She looked up at him. "Myself, 10 years from now, it's so hard to see. Will I be alone? Will there be some.... wonderful person next to me? I don't know. I'm... well, I'm scared to wonder."

"I see."

Sakura gazed out the window at the setting sun. The dark colors painted the sky, and she found herself thinking back to a campfire, one she'd sat at ten years before, where the colors had looked almost the same. The white Hokage's hat sat heavily on her brow, as she considered her past.

"You know, Lee," she said as she thought. "Shortly after we became Genins, Kakashi-sensei asked us all where we thought we'd be in ten years. He said his sensei had asked his team the same thing, when they were younger. He had wanted to be a writer. His friends had also wanted things. I asked him... 'Did any of their wishes come true?' and he looked at me with a sad expression, and said 'The only thing that it is impossible to see is the future.'" She paused, wiping away an invisible mote of dust. "I wonder now, as I did then: Will it be the same for us? Will our dreams _really_ come true?"

"But why? Why bother doing this?" Naruto's puzzled expression almost made Kakashi laugh. "If we can't see the future, and it might not come true, why should we bother thinking about it?"

"Because this way, even if you died tomorrow, you at least have the memories of your future. And above that, this way you'll know if you've gotten where you're going. Just remember... all destinations are final. If you haven't gotten to where you're going, you aren't there yet." The look of puzzlement on Naruto's face spread to the other two.

'Rin, Obito,' Kakashi thought, 'I really hope these guys wind up doing better than we did.'


End file.
